Government spending on public infrastructure,prices, production and international trade

This paper examines the impact of a change in government spending on public infrastructure when monopolistic competition prevails in one sector of the economy. The analysis is based on a variation of the Spence-Dixit-Stiglitz model where the presence of internal economies in the production of a differentiated intermediate good leads to specialization based external economies in the production of the final good. It is shown that changes in government spending on public infrastructure can influence relative prices, production, the degree of specialization, and pattern of international trade.     

Simultaneous inspection of several product characteristics

In this paper we consider 100% inspection of a product of which several characteristics have to satisfy given specification limits. A 100% inspection procedure may be necessary to bring the percentage of nonconforming items down to a level acceptable for the consumer. If one can observe the actual values of the characteristics, it would be possible to bring this percentage down to zero. However, quite often this is not possible, as a measurement error occurs in measuring the characteristics. Therefore, it is common practice to inspect each characteristic by comparing its measurement to a test limit which is slightly more strict than the corresponding specification limit. An item then is accepted if for each characteristic the measurement conforms to the corresponding test limit. However, instead of inspecting an individual characteristic merely using its own measurement, it is (much) more efficient to use the measurements of the other characteristics as well, especially if some of the characteristics are highly correlated. In this paper it is shown how the measurements of all the characteristics can be used to test whether an item is conforming.     

论设计调查与产品设计的关系

随着市场经济的发展,我们的产品已不只是停留在满足基本功能,而是加入了更多的人性化设计。现在,设计师们深入市场,对产品进行设计前的调查,已经成为产品成功的重要因素。     

Estimation and inference in two-stage,semi-parametric models of production processes

Many papers have regressed non-parametric estimates of productive efficiency on environmental variables in two-stage procedures to account for exogenous factors that might affect firms’ performance. None of these have described a coherent data-generating process (DGP). Moreover, conventional approaches to inference employed in these papers are invalid due to complicated, unknown serial correlation among the estimated efficiencies. We first describe a sensible DGP for such models. We propose single and double bootstrap procedures; both permit valid inference, and the double bootstrap procedure improves statistical efficiency in the second-stage regression. We examine the statistical performance of our estimators using Monte Carlo experiments.     

色彩心理与产品设计

从色彩对比、联觉、色彩情感、色彩的身心反应、异质性五个方面,探讨色彩的心理学规律以及这些色彩心理学规律在产品设计中的启示和应用,以期提高产品设计之功效。     

产品设计中的符号和隐喻

文章围绕"符号"和"隐喻"的概念从相关领域进行探讨,并从产品设计的角度出发,探讨"符号"与"隐喻"如何体现.     

Simultaneous determination of inventories and accounts receivable

The study presents a model based on 3375 observations from industrial firms in Pakistan, and the three‐stage least square (3SLS) technique has been applied for the estimation. The results indicate that the economic order quantity (EOQ) of inventories is not a constant magnitude; it is a variable closely associated with ‘time trend’. While the ‘buffer stock’ element can be estimated through the constant term of an equation. Receivables from customers show a negative correlation with liquid assets and the cost of production. Receivables are also shown to act as substitute for closing inventories. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sustainable product attributes and firm performance: The moderating role of marketing resource intensity

This paper aims to study the performance implications of sustainable product attributes (SPA) of US manufacturing firms. Specifically, it analyzes the influence of aggregate and disaggregated SPA on firm profitability. The study further explores the moderating influence of marketing resource intensity on aggregate and disaggregated SPA and firm profitability relationships. The fixed-effect regression analysis of 433 US manufacturing firms' panel dataset reveals that aggregate and disaggregated SPA positively influence the firm profitability. The moderation analysis also confirms the positive influence of marketing resource intensity on aggregate and disaggregated SPA and firm profitability relationship. The current paper contributes to the triple-bottom-line and theory-of-the-firm literature streams by empirically studying the influence of aggregate and disaggregated SPA on firm profitability. Furthermore, this study uses the resource-based view to complement theory-of-the-firm model of SPA and empirically study the moderating role of marketing resource intensity between aggregate and disaggregated SPA and firm profitability. Finally, the findings inform the managers of the increased firm profitability by aggregate and disaggregated SPA, and the pivotal role of marketing resource intensity in strengthening the positive influence of aggregate and disaggregated SPA on US manufacturing firms' profitability.     

Role change of design engineers in product development

Product development is recognized as cross-functional, knowledge-intensive work that has become increasingly important in the fast-paced, globally competitive environment. Researchers and practicing managers contend that design engineers may play an important role in product development efforts. However, their effect on the product development process is not well understood and the extent of their impact on product development performance has not been adequately accessed. This research defines the changing role of design engineers, and it discusses their impact on setting clear project targets and sharing knowledge about customers. The study investigates the impact of these variables on product development productivity. Data collected from 205 manufacturing firms were used to create valid and reliable instruments to assess role change of design engineers, clarity of project targets, shared knowledge about customers and product development productivity. Results from structural equation modeling indicate that as the role of design engineers expands the clarity of project targets increase. This increase impacts the extent of shared knowledge about customers. Increases in the clarity of project targets and shared knowledge about customers appear to enhance product development productivity.     

浅析产品设计中的情感付诸

情感是产品设计中不可忽略的产物,设计师必须在产品设计中付诸情感。文章探讨了情感沟通的具体内涵,揭示了以用户需求为中心,通过交互式设计来挖掘情感的相关方法,详细论述了通过注重人性化设计、形式要素以及产品功能来深化情感的若干策略。     

Commodity prices and fiscal policy design: Procyclical despite a rule

Recent studies offer evidence of reduced fiscal procyclicality to commodity price changes in resource‐rich countries—a feature commonly attributed to the adoption of fiscal policy rules. We revisit this issue and find that, by controlling for global activity shocks while allowing for time‐varying changes in both fiscal policy and the volatility of shocks, this finding does not hold. To show this we develop a time‐varying dynamic factor model, allowing for a multiple of shocks, stochastic volatility and time‐varying parameters, and estimate it on data for Norway, whose handling of resource wealth is often cited as exemplary.     

Physical distribution service quality in Internet retailing: service pricing, transaction attributes, and firm attributes

This paper develops a theoretical framework and empirically investigates physical distribution service (PDS) quality by Internet retailers in their transactions with consumers. An analysis of data that measure hundreds of electronic commerce transactions along with data at the firm level shows that higher shipping and handling charges are good indicators of better PDS quality. Other transaction-level conditions and firm-level attributes also affect PDS quality, as measured by availability, timeliness, and reliability. Most notably, when the net price of products transacted increases, PDS reliability and availability decline. Furthermore, Internet-retailer size is found to favor PDS availability whereas, surprisingly, newer Internet retailers exhibit a higher level of PDS availability than many of their incumbent competitors.     

谈不同计价方式对建筑产品价格影响的分析

文章主要从亲自运用过的不同计价方式——定额计价方式与清单计价方式对同一类建筑产品价格的影响,分析两种计价方式的特点,指出计价方式的发展方向。     

Extrinsic and intrinsic food product attributes in consumer and sensory research: literature review and quantification of the findings

Management Review Quarterly - As recent years have seen a growing interest in integrating consumer and sensory science, this paper aims at presenting a systematic literature review of empirical...     

无障碍设计的媒介性研究

无障碍设计作为一种设计方法,在设计应用领域起到了越来越重要的作用,本文从无障碍设计的特征出发,分析了设计媒介这一概念在设计开发过程中与产品以及和终端用户交互时的关系,并尝试通过媒介分析这一渠道诠释将设计意图恰当地表达给用户的诸项条件和可能性。     

The role of sustainable environment attributes in luxury product perceptions: Evidence from an emerging market

The social responsibility aspect of the luxury product concept has recently started to receive more attention from researchers and practitioners. However, the luxury product perceptions measurement in the literature often does not incorporate the sustainable environment friendly dimensions of the luxury goods consumption. Therefore in this study, we attempt to investigate the role of sustainable environment benefits in consumers’ value perceptions of the luxury products. Data for the study was collected from n?=?218 female consumers who were shopping in high-end luxury apparel retailers located in exclusive shopping centers in Turkey. Study results show four dimensions (exclusiveness, normative beliefs, self-directed pleasure, and social/prestige) of luxury goods perceptions of female Turkish consumers. Practical and research implications of the study findings are presented.     

Unbiased determination of production technologies

To determine whether an industry exhibits constant returns to scale, whether the production function is homothetic, or whether inputs are separable, a common approach is to specify a cost function, estimate its parameters using data such as prices and quantities of inputs, and then test the parametric restrictions corresponding to constant returns, a homothetic technology, or separability. Statistically, such inferences are valid if the true cost function is a member of the parametric class considered, otherwise the inference is biased. That is, the true rejection probability is not necessarily adequately approximated by the nominal size of the statistical test. The use of fixed parameter flexible functional forms such as the Translog, the generalized Leontief, or the Box-Cox will not alleviate this problem.The Fourier flexible form differs fundamentally from other flexible forms in that it has a variable number of parameters and a known bound, depending on the number of parameters, on the error, as measured by the Sobolev norm, of approximation to an arbitrary cost function. Thus it is possible to construct statistical tests for constant returns, a homothetic technology, or separability which are asymptotically size α by letting the number of parameters of the Fourier flexible form depend on sample size. That is, the true rejection probability converges to the nominal size of the test as sample size tends to infinity. The rate of convergence depends on the smoothness of the true cost function; the more times is differentiable the true cost function, the faster the convergence.The method is illustrated using the data on aggregate U.S. manufacturing of Berndt and Wood (1975, 1979) and Berndt and Khaled (1979).